


Mistakes

by Canadiantardis



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Anxiety, But it won't be the main focus it'll still be mainly be platonic friendships, Deceit Sanders Has a Different Name, Fluff, Gen, Might have moxiety or nothing at all, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Remus and Deceit aren't good but they aren't bad, Sleepovers, Slow Burn, So turns out there will be slight romance, Swearing, Teen Angst, Teenage Drama, Trans Male Character, Until then its a lot of fluff and teenage boys bonding with one another, Well the moxiety will either be slow burn or just minor, Who knows if there's gunna be romance, guess which boy decided to tell me he's trans, the moment we meet deceit and remus fully is when all the angst comes up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2020-07-28 20:37:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20070226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: Virgil Sanderson just wants to make a new start for himself after the horrors of Midde School. He pleaded with his mom to allow him to go to a boarding high school in the next city over, just to avoid anyone who might’ve known him and all his mistakes.At Miscape Academy, Virgil adjusts to his new life, and somehow makes fast friends with the popular trio of their grade; Patton Starr, Roman Skeates, and Logan Scriven. As he settles into life, and thinks he’s going to be happy again, a familiar scar of his past shows up, and Virgil has to figure out what to do to not repeat his middle school experiences. Or lose everything he has.(previously called Mistakes resurface)





	1. New School, New ME

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for Sanders Sides! Hope yall enjoy!

Virgil’s shoulders were so tense, he thought he wouldn’t be able to move away from the bathroom mirror, staring at himself. He looked uncomfortable in the blazer the school uniform required, his hair out of his face for the first time in three years.

“Virge! Hurry up, orientation starts in an hour and if you _don’t get out right now,_ we’ll be late!” His mother’s annoyed shout shot electricity into Virgil’s limbs.

He scrambled out of the bathroom to grab his backpack. His suitcase was already at the front door, where his mother shouted from.

“Coming!” He shouted back, staring around his dark room with a heavy heart. No, he wasn’t going to miss this place. Too many-

“Virgil!”

“I said I’m _coming, mom!”_ He shouted with such venom he flinched. “Sorry… I’m coming.” He softened his tone as his hair fell into his face, and he trudged to the front door.

His mother stood with a hand on his suitcase and, at the sight of him, she gave him a distasteful look.

“Are you sure that tie isn’t throttling you?” She asked, adjusting the uniform. “You look like someone I used to beat up in high school, kiddo.”

“Gee, thanks. Good to know I look like some nerd that needs to get beat up.” Virgil said sarcastically as he brushed his hair out of his face, his shoulders up to his ears. “Let’s go so I’m not late.”

“Are you absolutely sure about this?” His mom asked, opening the door for the two of them. “Surely there’s a school more closer than Miscape Academy.”

“There’s not a school anywhere in this city that doesn’t…” Virgil trailed off, but his mother understood, although she still gave a resigned sigh.

“Okay.”

The two were silent as they loaded Virgil’s stuff into the car, and soon they were off, heading to the next city where Miscape Academy dominated. It was an almost hour-long drive from their home, which the duo took listening to their respective music – Virgil used his clunky headphones to drown out the radio station his mother bopped her head along to.

Virgil watched out the window as they travelled, seeing nothing familiar before he relaxed. It was the weirdest feeling; nothing looked familiar, which set him on edge, but there was no way his past could follow him here, which brought him a sense of calmness. The music certainly helped ease his heightened nerves. Soon, his mother reached the boarding school entrance.

“Do you need me to-” His mom started as she nudged Virgil’s headphones off his head.

“I know where to go.” He cut her off. “I’ll be good, mom. You have work soon, and they stopped listening to the ‘My son needed me’ excuse by now.”

His mother chuckled and reached over to ruffle his hair, getting his bangs to cover an eye again.

“There. Now you look more like my son.” She smiled at him, before she leant over and hugged him tightly. “Please don’t make the same mistakes. Call when you’re allowed to visit home.”

Virgil hugged back tightly, feeling like a child for a brief moment. “I won’t.” He mumbled. “And maybe. If I actually _miss you_ or something.”

His mother let him go with a betrayed gasp, and he hopped out of the car with his backpack and suitcase in hand. He waved at her before he approached his new school.

Miscape Academy was a private k-12 boarding school for kids throughout the State, with hard entrance exams for any new students above kindergarten age. By some miracle, Virgil passed the entrance – albeit late, and being told he passed by the skin of his teeth – and had been told he would be a full-time student once summer ended.

He walked quickly in and found the reception.

“New?” The lady behind the counter asked kindly, a tone Virgil forgot adults could direct to him. “What grade?”

“N-nine, ma’am.” He stuttered. “Do you need m-my name?”

“No, dear, but thank you.” The lady smiled at him before she started to _click-clack_ on her computer. “Ah, here we are. Virgil Sanderson? You’re the last new student for the ninth grade to arrive.”

Virgil mumbled an apology on instinct, looking at the counter shyly.

“It’s okay.” She slid a small pile of papers his way before placing a key on top of it all. “Here is your agenda, class schedule for the Fall Term, and orientation papers. And your dorm key. You’ll be sharing with, in my opinion, the sweetest young man we’ve been lucky to have had since kindergarten.”

“Wh-why not another new student?” Virgil asked, worried.

“We’ve learned new students together get lost very easily, so we pair new students with classmates who know the school. Now,” she cleared her throat, “best be off. I’ll let the orientation team know you’re on your way.”

She made a shooing motion with a kind smile, a strange expression Virgil forgot adults could give him. He was so used to school staff to give him dirty looks, or worse. It was… nice.

He quickly left and looked at the papers and key, pocketing the key in his front breast pocket. The first papers in the pile was a little map to show him where to go from the reception to where the grade 9 orientation was.

He hurried through the halls, still toting his suitcase and bag, until he reached an open door with a poster board sign reading “Welcome New Freshmen!”

Peeking in, he saw a small group of random students his age, all looking as uncomfortable with the new uniform as he was, and some too-friendly teachers standing around.

“Ah, there’s the last one! Welcome to orientation!” A young woman teacher extended her arms in a sweeping motion. “Now we can start. We’ll go over the rules of the school, dorm situation, and then we’ll have your roommates join us for the tour part of the orientation. Then us teachers will leave you be before classes start tomorrow.”

* * *

Patton bounded through the halls of the school, a little faster than usual as he had almost forgotten the time cleaning the dorm so his new roommate would actually have room for his stuff.

He saw a few familiar heads and skidded to a stop before he could collide with Jessa near the edges of the group.

“Hey Jessa! I’m not late, right?” He asked breathlessly.

Said student turned her head and perked up. “Patton! Nope, Mrs. Nexus is still going over the dorm situation. She should be at the end though.”

The two paused to listen in on the classroom they and the other students waited outside of.

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask to be paired with your friends.” Josh spoke up to Patton’s right.

“Oh, no! I love showing new people around!” Patton waved the thought away with a quiet laugh, trying not to disrupt orientation. “And anyway, they paired off with me being the odd man out. Win-win, in any case!”

His classmates listening laughed and agreed.

Soon, Mrs. Nexus’ voice was heard calling for them. “C’mon in, kids, and meet your new roomies.”

Each pairing had been given a wristband of the same colour, and Patton zeroed in on the teen wearing the matching purple band around his wrist. Taking in his appearance, Patton paused at how… _spicy_ he looked, with his dark makeup smudged under the eyes like he had been rubbing eyeliner under them for days. He had lanky, dyed dark purple hair – _Oh! Maybe his wristband was destiny,_ he thought with a wide smile – with an undercut that wasn’t dyed purple, showing dark brown, and most of the purple hair was hanging in front of his face like he was in the middle of his teenage angst phase.

“Heya! I’m Patton, your lucky roomie!” He greeted with a bounce to his step, and a large smile that happily infected his attempting-to-brood new roommate. He extended his hand for the other teen to shake. “If you have any questions, I can try my hand and help out!”

The new kid seemed stunned by his chipper nature, and simply blinked back at him and his hand before slowly, slower than a sloth, taking it briefly.

“Uh, V-Virgil.” The teen replied, shoving his hands uncomfortably into the blazer.

“Oooh, nice name! Gothic, kinda like your makeup.” Patton joked. “Don’t worry about that. You’re allowed to express your style with dyed hair and wear makeup, as long as it’s not too distracting.”

“O-oh, okay.” Virgil nodded slowly, a hand leaving the pockets to play with his bangs nervously.

“Okay, kids. Time for the tour. Stick to your roommates, and then you can head to your dorms and do whatever.” Mrs. Nexus called.

“Come on!” Patton took Virgil’s hand and pulled him around behind him, missing the wide-eyed expression the teen gave.

* * *

“And we end with the dorm entrance.” The male teacher, Mr. Wexum, stood next to Mrs. Nexus as they finished with the tour of the school and its grounds.

Virgil was a little intimidated by just how large the school property was, even more by how big the school was.

His roommate, Patton, nattered on about little facts he seemed to know by heart, but Virgil could easily tune out his words when he felt overwhelmed. He couldn’t show it, not yet. Not with so many strangers surrounding him on all sides. He just had to wait until he was alone.

“Have a great year here, and we’re so glad to have you here.” Mrs. Nexus said, and the group of teens dispersed, heading into the dorms to get the new students used to their new living quarters.

“Come on! Let’s drop off your stuff and then we can hit the kitchen. I could even introduce you to some of my friends!” Patton said excitedly, grabbing Virgil’s free hand again and pulled him into the common area of the dorms. “This is the dorms for the Freshmen year guys. The girls have the dorms next door. There’s like, six storeys of dorms, and ten rooms each floor.

Virgil frowned, mentally doing the math. “So, there’s like 120 guys in our year.” That seemed really small for the grade year. He was used to huge, cramped classrooms.

“Roughly, or less, I think.” Patton replied. “A couple of the dorms are left empty in case more students transfer or something, and some students can't handle having a roommate.” He shrugged with a chuckle. “We’re not a huge school, really. It’s just because we go from kindergarten to senior year that it looks as big as it does.”

They walked over to the elevator in the far back of the common area. “We won’t need to use this all the time, we’re on the second floor.” Patton explained. “But I don’t think either of us wanna lug your stuff up the stairs.”

“Yeah, sure.” Virgil realized they were still holding hands, and coughed lightly, tugging his hand out of the other’s grip.

“Oh, Patton.” A voice called behind them, heading in their direction. “This is your new roommate?”

Turning to see the student, Virgil thought the uniform actually suited this kid. He looked like a total nerd, and he now understood what his mom said about how he looked like someone she used to bully. If this kid went to any other school, he would have been easy pickings.

“Yep! This is Virgil!” Patton wrapped an arm around his shoulders, making Virgil stiffen.

“Let him go, Patton.” The nerd sighed, and once Patton listened, he pushed his glasses up before extending a hand to Virgil. “My name is Logan. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Uh, yeah.” He took the hand and gave it a single shake when the elevator door dinged.

“We’re gunna drop Virge’s stuff in our room before heading back to the kitchen. Is Roman still there?” Patton looked over as he and Virgil headed into the elevator, Logan not following them.

“Probably. I’ll hold him down for you.” Logan gave a soft smirk, waved at the two as the doors shut, and turned around just before the doors fully shut.

“You’re friends with that nerd?” Virgil rose an eyebrow at the puppy-like teen.

“Oh heck yeah! Logan’s like one of my best friends, we’ve known each other since he joined the school in grade 1!”

“Are you a nerd too?”

Patton looked thoughtful before he shrugged as the elevator opened at the second floor. “I don’t think so. Maybe, but I don’t know as many big words like Logan does. But compared to Roman, we’re both kinda nerds.”

“Who’s Roman?” They walked out, Virgil following his roommate to their room, which luckily wasn’t far from either the stairs or elevator.

“My other best friend! We’ve known each other since Pre-k! He’s a big theatre guy, so he might be dramatic when you first meet him. But he’s really cool!”

Virgil kept quiet as he thought to himself. _A puppy-like nerd, a bookworm nerd, and a theatre nerd. Great._

Patton opened the door to their room and Virgil could only blink at the decorated side. It was a disaster of colours, and he couldn’t see Patton’s bed under the littering of clothes and plushies and pillows. It make Virgil smirk, already imagining how in a couple days their two sides would be polar opposites.

“I think I can understand you more, looking at… this.” He chuckled, dropping his bag and suitcase on the empty bed.

“Sorry. I tried to clean up and almost got to your orientation late.” Patton rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Virgil snorted, quickly hiding it behind a forced cough. “That’s… okay. Really. I don’t care too much if this place is a mess. You should see what my room looks like back home.”

"Really? You don’t look like a messy kind of guy.” Patton looked Virgil up and down by the door, making Virgil self-conscious. “Oh! Don’t forget to bring your key and student ID with you everywhere.” He shrugged. “It’s the only way to ensure no one steals into the school and stuff. There’s an inside pocket in the blazer, and then you should have them in some pocket when it’s casual-wear days. Or days off.”

Virgil grabbed both things. He had the ID since he got accepted, and slipped both into the inner pocket, then headed to the door. He didn’t really want to leave the room immediately, but he was forcing himself to leave his comfort zone.

“Okay, let’s meet this Roman nerd friend of yours. But after,” Virgil awkwardly crossed his arms, “I think I’ll have had enough excitement for the day. I just want to unpack and, y’know, decompress.”

“Oh, okay sure!” Patton still had a bright look about him as they walked out of their room and headed for the stairs. “Hey, if you ever feel overwhelmed, just like, Pat my shoulder twice. You don’t have to say anything. I get this is all really new and stuff.”

Virgil was taken aback by Patton’s offer, without needing more info on why he didn’t want to be around people. He was suddenly grateful to know this teen. He nodded.

They reached the common area again, where towards the entrance of the kitchen, they could see the back of a teen, and facing in their direction was Logan, looking done with whatever the teen was talking about.

Something about the way the teen held himself made Virgil slow his pace, his heart thundering in his ears. _What was this guy’s name? Roman? Why did that name sound…_

“Roman! Meet my new roomie!” Patton raced ahead to grab Roman by the shoulders and turned him around mid-word.

“I don’t – Patton!” The teen sounded terribly familiar, although less nasally, and when Virgil saw his face, his own paled dramatically. “The tour’s done? Great! … Is…”

Roman Skeates stood in Patton’s arms, and Virgil bolted back up the stairs.

Chapter Done


	2. Overreact

“I say, that was rather rude.” Roman huffed, a hand resting on his hip. “I didn’t even get to say ‘how do you do’ to him.”

Patton looked at the stairs, concerned. “He said he had been feeling a bit wanting to decompress or something, like he was getting overwhelmed by everything. But… I thought he was up to being introduced to you.” He bit his lip. “I’m going to check on him.”

“We’ll accompany you.” Roman announced, slipping out of Patton’s arms and already bounding up the stairs. “I don’t think that was something as simple as you say.”

Logan and Patton shared a look before hurrying after him.

Roman reached the door first, knocking it to a tune of some new broadway show he had gotten into over the break.

“You in there, Dark Elsa?” Roman’s tone was light and joking. “Do you wanna build a snowman?”

Patton snickered softly as he fished for his key and unlocked the door quickly.

“Virgil?” He called as he opened the door, looking in to see what was different, only to see Virgil on his bare bed, his stuff on the floor beside him, his back stiff towards the door, and one of Patton’s fluffiest pillows clutched between his hands. “Oh gosh, Virgil!”

He hurried, scampering onto the bed to face the new student, to see Virgil face-first in the pillow, his shoulders shaking violently in either panic or the most silent sobbing ever.

“Woah, woah there!” Patton carefully put both his hands on Virgil’s shoulders. “Virgil breathe!”

Virgil gasped at the touch, jerking his head up, looking like a deer knowing it’s death is coming. _That took crying off the possibilities._

“Uh, uh, Logan!” Patton didn’t take his eyes off Virgil’s mismatched ones. “P-panic! What, what breathing techniques do you know?”

Logan was quiet as he thought before he gave a quick breathing exercise, instructing Patton what to do so Virgil could copy him.

“Breathe in for four seconds. Hold for four. Breathe out for four seconds. Hold for four, and repeat. Imagine following the lines of a square.” Logan instructed softly, standing mostly behind Virgil so Patton could partially see him in his periphery.

Patton and Virgil followed the technique until the new student’s shoulders relaxed, slouching down.

“Gosh, Virgil. If you had already reached your interacting limit before we got downstairs, you could have just said!” Patton felt worried for his roommate, and a bit guilty but couldn’t place exactly why.

Virgil shook his head, sitting up and Patton’s arms dropped to the bed. “N-no, no, I’m o-okay.” He gave a smile so fake it made Patton grimace. “I just… o-overreacted. It’s nothing.”

“Overreacting to seeing my beautiful face?” Roman spoke and Patton saw how Virgil stiffened again. “I know I’m _breathtaking_, but even this was a bit much. You sure you’re okay, Emo Bangs?”

“Roman, be nice!” Patton chided, finally looking away from his roommate for a moment.

“It’s, it’s okay, Patton.” The fake smile looked more genuine now, as Virgil turned to face Roman and Logan. “Uh, sorry. You just… reminded me of someone from my middle school.”

“I hope this comparison is a compliment.”

Virgil chuckled darkly and shook his head with a smirk. “Uh, yeah, no. Can’t stand the guy now.” His voice dropped to a mutter that Patton could barely catch. “Kinda why I'm…”

“Why I!” Roman dramatically slapped a hand over his chest, speaking over the muttering. “That wasn’t very nice! You know nothing about me, and you already dislike me?”

Virgil’s shoulders went tense again, and he muttered again something that Patton could not catch, shaking his head. “Right, sorry.” He shook his head again before letting a hand go of the pillow, extending it to Roman. “Nice to officially meet you, Roman. Patton says you’ve been friends since Pre-k.”

Patton watched the exchange with a curious expression. Something felt off, but he couldn’t place it, so for now he’d leave it be.

“Ah, yes! Patton’s been a good friend, and he’s entirely the reason I came here.” Roman made grand sweeping gestures as he spoke. “And I’ve never been happier to come to a stuffy, uniform-wearing school!”

Patton smacked Roman’s arm lightly. “I was not the reason! Your parents decided, not me or mine.”

“Nah, they saw our friendship and knew it was simply _made to be~”_ Roman sang the last few words, raising a hand in his direction as if about to cup his face, and Patton snickered.

“Yeah, right!” His face went warm at the praise.

Logan chuckled, and Virgil smiled lightly, hidden by the pillow along with most of his face.

“You really are a giant theatre nerd, aren’t you?” He asked, his words mostly muffled through the pillow, but the others heard clear enough for Patton to giggle, covering his mouth with both hands.

Roman spluttered, a hand dramatically over his chest as if personally insulted. “I am not a _nerd!_ I am an _actor,_ a much better word for me.”

“You’re friends with nerds. So you’re a nerd.” Virgil shifted to have his chin rest on the pillow rather than be hidden, his tone amused and teasing. Patton was relieved he was feeling well enough now.

Roman spluttered again, and stamped his foot when he couldn’t find the words quick enough. “Well, you’re roommates with Patton now, so, so,” he gesticulated around the room, “so that means you’ll become friends with him and then _you’ll_ be a nerd, too.” He crossed his arms smugly.

Patton giggled behind Virgil, enjoying the exchange while Logan rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say, Drama Prince.” The new student shook his head before he shifted to sit more comfortably on the bare bed, almost cuddling Patton’s pillow to his chest and drawing his knees up to his chest.

* * *

After dinner that evening, with Logan and Roman going to their own dorm room and finally leaving Virgil and Patton’s room, Virgil started to unpack. It wasn’t much that he brought from home; anything he really cared for was too big, too delicate, or too childish, and the rest held too many… memories he was trying hard to forget. Besides clothes, all Virgil really brought were things he’d need for school, some Nightmare Before Christmas posters, his electronics, and his dark spiderweb bedding.

Patton had seen the bedding and jumped onto his bed with a startled, scared yelp, staring at the bedding as if the little cartoon spiders would move.

Virgil jumped in surprise at the yelp and whipped around to find out what caused his roommate to freak out until he pieced it together, and just simply snickered behind a hand.

“Dude.” He said, holding up his bedsheet and Patton yelped again, hitting his back on the wall, his feet doing a comical fearful dance. “These are fake, calm down.”

“I’m terribly afraid of spiders!” Patton said in a high pitch, his voice cracking.

“Sorry man, but these are the only ones I brought from home.” Virgil shrugged and went back to making his bed, rolling his eyes every time Patton squeaked.

“Why’d you have to like creepy crawly death dealers!?” His roommate sounded so distressed. “Bats are cool! So are snakes!” Virgil flinched but tried to play it off as shaking his head and straightening the bedsheet. “Why spiders?”

He shrugged in response once he was finished making his bed. “They’re cool. And they’re _fake,_ Patton. I’ll throw my blanket on you if you keep acting like a scaredy-cat.”

Patton squeaked again and crossed his legs standing up, dropping with a bounce on his own bed. When Virgil turned around to face his roommate, he saw he was paler than before, but was no longer looking at the bedding. He was staring wide-eyed at Virgil himself in a begging way. He looked like a kicked puppy suddenly.

“Please don’t, Virgil, I think I’d have a heart attack.” He begged.

“Fine, fine.” Virgil rolled his eyes. “I’ll see if I can get my mom to get some of the boring bedding stuff for next week or something. But Halloween,” he grinned wickedly at his roommate, “I’ll get you used to spiders.”

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I wonder what Virgil said that Patton couldn't hear, hmm


	3. Gangs

The first week of school was… Well, it wasn’t all _good_, but Virgil hadn’t been kicked out of any class yet, so it was better than most of the previous year altogether. For some dumb, stupid reason, Patton and he shared all their classes together, besides the Creative Writing option class he had thought would be the most interesting.

Sadly, that meant he shared the class with the Drama Prince himself as the only one he knew. Of all the optional classes, Virgil _knew_ Drama was a course the other teen could and should have taken. _So why Creative Writing?!_

Even if the teacher, a cheery looking man with the energy of a puppy akin Patton named Mr. Sanders, was great and lenient, Virgil sulked that he would be stuck with Roman in the one class he didn’t have Patton as a safety net. Roman alone would mean there was nothing stopping him from possibly remembering, and Virgil could _not_ let that happen. He sat across the classroom from the other teen, despite Roman’s attempts to sit next to him, and tried not to speak when he managed to get a seat close enough to whisper and gossip.

He did share other classes with Roman, as well as a couple with Logan – he had made a mental note to see how much of a nerd Logan was in their math class since he sat next to him – but being alone with the Skeates kid unsettled Virgil. He looked too _similar_, and Virgil was sure if he let his guard down, he’d let something slip and the entire world would crash on his head in an instant.

He was in his head when a bony ass crushed his legs into the plastic school chairs – _for a private boarding school, you’d think the chairs wouldn’t look as beat up as public schools_, Virgil thought sardonically – and he let out a yelp of pain.

“Get off!” He tried to push the kid off him, but he just laughed at the attempt. “I swear I’ll kick your ass to next week if you don’t get it off me!”

“Are you gunna let me sit next to you then?” Roman asked, wiggling to grind Virgil’s bones into the chair.

“Agh, fine! Get off before you break my legs, dumbass!”

“Virgil, language.” Mr. Sanders called from his desk where a classmate was trying to ask him a question or something else stupid like that before the bell rang for class to start.

He snapped his jaw shut at the teacher’s call, glaring daggers at Roman as he smugly sat in the desk next to him.

“Gloomy Gus, do you have a grudge against me? You always avoid me in this class, and then act like nothing’s wrong in all the others we share. What’s up?” Roman leant to the side into Virgil’s space to speak in a low tone, the smug look gone.

He froze for a second, but before the silence between them got too long, the bell rang, and Virgil sighed in relief as Mr. Sanders finished with the student to stand up in front of the class, effectively ending the conversation.

“Okay, class. We’re going to work on keeping tenses for this and next week. We’ll be writing things in the past, present, and future. They don’t have to be full-blown stories just yet,” Mr. Sanders explained over a couple groans, unfazed, “that’ll come later in the month. For today, we’re going to focus on writing in the past tense. I want each one of you to write about something that happened to you this summer. And I don’t want one-liners.” He looked pointedly at some students close to the classroom door with an amused curl to his lips. “At least a hundred words. I’d prefer to read something you all did that was fun, like travelling, or even a nice time at a nearby park.

“And remember.” Mr. Sanders turned his back to the class to write on the whiteboard. “It’s in the _past_ tense. ‘I went, I did, she had,’ etc. You have free range of the dictionaries and thesauruses… Thesauri?” He paused as he seemed to think of the proper saying for plural of thesaurus before he shook his head with a smile. “Whatever. You can use them if I’m swarmed by your classmates. I’ll let you know when we’re about ten minutes from the bell. Have at it.”

There was a flurry of papers and notebooks being pulled out. Mr. Sanders wasn’t too strict about silence, or use of cellphones as long as everyone did the work – at least that’s what Virgil kept hearing for the past week from classmates and Mr. Sanders himself on the first day – so the low din of conversations grew around Virgil and Roman.

Roman attempted a total of three times to make conversation with Virgil until he put on his headphones. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw how the Drama Prince pouted at him, and his face was terrifyingly similar in that moment. Just change the iris colour.

Virgil forced himself to look at his notebook to ignore the teen next to him, trying to think of something that happened this summer that would appease the teacher and not get sent to the guidance counsellor’s. But as he began to think of the summer, he found it was… uneventful. Avoiding his usual haunts, staying inside and following his mother around like the scared tattletale he was. He could only be grateful his mom still had even an ounce of love for him to keep him safe after everything he had done to her before.

He decided to go for a boring day when his mom and him went to her work for a family day thing. Both weren’t really people-persons, so the two kept to themselves – that and by now, the other families knew Virgil wasn’t a good influence on their kids. Too many family days where Virgil and Them convinced other kids to run wild and one fateful family day where he managed to convince a bunch of the kids to start a food fight that ended with him be put in high security time-out. This summer’s family day at his mom’s work was the first time he did nothing. He sat in the shade and watched, with only his mom as company.

“Oh!” Roman pushed Virgil’s headphone off an ear curiously, pointing to his little heading ‘Past tense, Summer, Family Day for Aeronautics’ “I didn’t know you went to those things. My brother went to them like every year.”

“B-brother?” Virgil cursed his stutter, hoping to look surprised by the piece of information given.

“Yeah, I have a twin nuisance.” Roman rolled his eyes so hard Virgil thought they would pop out of his skull. “He luckily doesn’t go here. But I know he would always drone on and _on _about the plans he and his friends had to mess with the adults at those things.”

“Oh, h-him.” Virgil’s hands formed fists.

“Yeah, sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end of him.” Roman patted his shoulder, not noticing how he flinched at the contact. “Was he there this year? I know he had been planning something with his friends but he wasn’t as vocal about the Aeronautics Family Day shenanigans.”

“Oh, no, uh no.” Virgil shook his head. “Didn’t, uh, didn’t see them that day.”

“Huh.” Roman looked thoughtful, before smiling. “Then you must have all had a peaceful family day for once. I know my brother and his little… _gang_ aren’t the most pleasant or nice people.”

Virgil struggled not to choke on his breath. _Gang._

“Uh, yeah-”

“Okay everyone!” Mr. Sanders called, standing from his desk to get everyone’s attention. “We have five minutes before the bell rings. Finish that sentence, and if you’re not finished with the story, finish it for homework. We’ll be looking at each other’s work next class. If you’re fully done, you can put it on my desk as you leave.”

Virgil sighed in relief, the breath shaky, and started busying himself by gathering his things. He was glad Roman seemed to forget the conversation they had been in the middle of having to get his things ready for the next period.

Virgil couldn’t believe he was looking forward to seeing Patton. At least with his roommate, he could pretend he was something he always was, and not anything else.

* * *

The weekend was upon them, and he could finally spend a day with his mom. He had been texting her every other day, when she would ask if he was dead or not. He tried to deny it to himself, but he really missed her. Since the New Year, she had become his confidante.

He briefly recalled the day, during Winter Break. He had been shaking worse than he did during a full-blown panic attack, his eyes wide and unblinking – he couldn’t blink, because blinking meant the image burned into his retinas would flash back to the forefront – and his mother held him in her arms, whispering comforts that edged on pleas. It had been the first time since he had met Them that he _trusted_ her words, clinging to them like a lifeline. It had also been the first time since he started Middle School that he broke down in front of anybody.

His mom waved from outside the driver’s side of the car as he walked out with Patton nattering about weekend plans he had with his family. Virgil perked up at her appearance and after a quick stutter of ‘see you tomorrow’ he hurried to his mom.

“Don’t forget new sheets, please! No more spiders!” Patton shouted after him, and he saw his mom raise an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved to his roommate and quickly slid into the car, his mom sliding in a couple moments later.

“The shouty one was your roommate, right?” She asked as she drove out of the school, her tone teasing in a way that had Virgil squint at her.

“Yea?” He answered suspiciously.

“Why doesn’t he like spiders?”

“He’s a scaredy-cat. Thinks the spiders on my blanket are going to come to life and, I don’t know, eat him or something dumb.”

“Aw, cute.” The teasing tone hadn’t left. Virgil couldn’t tell what she was teasing him about.

“What’s his name again?” His mom asked as they drove onto the shoulder leading to the highway. “It was a really cute name, I remember.”

“How can a-” Virgil cut himself off and shook his head, “Patton. He’s apparently been at the school all his school life, and he’s a huge puppy nerd.”

“I’m surprised at you, Virge.” There was a light smile playing on his mother’s lips. “Making friends with a nerd?”

“You haven’t met Logan yet. Patton looks normal compared to _that_ huge nerd.” He countered. “And it’s not like I have any choice. Living with him, and him not taking no to friendship for an answer?”

“I’m glad, sweetie. You deserve some nerdy friends.” Virgil only realized now that his mom had turned off the radio. “Only a week into the school year and you already look so different.”

“In a nerd way or a good way?” He joked, and his mom laughed.

“Now who said nerd was a bad thing? You know your Aunt Val was a nerd in high school? Not the kind I used to steal money from, but still.”

_“No!”_ Virgil gasped the word in surprise, snapping his head to look at his mother’s profile, her eyes on the road. “Aunt Val was a _nerd?_ But, that’s like… Impossible!” He suddenly tried to think of his mother’s best friend wearing clothes Logan seemed partial to, but he couldn’t.

She laughed in response, and looked to be struggling not to double over. “Yeah! She was the one nerd in school that was immune to me, and then she just attached herself to me as a friend. You already know how she’s the only reason I graduated high school, and even decided to get into engineering.”

“Woah…” Virgil slumped in his seat, the revelation making his eyes go wide, and Roman’s words suddenly came back to him, and he turned on his mom with a teasing smirk. “You’re friends with a nerd. That makes_ you_ a _nerd_!”

The two laughed loudly.

“Yeah, I guess I am. The bitchiest nerd in the world.” His mom laughed. “And where did you hear that logic?”

“Roman.”

The laughter pattered away. “Roman? That name sounds familiar…”

“It’s…” Virgil played with his bangs. He hadn’t told her over text who Roman was because he needed to tell her face to face. “It’s Skeates. Remus’ brother.”

His mom went rigid, her knuckles white against the steering wheel as she tried not to cause a crash on the highway. “What?”

“My reaction too!”

“Does he know who you are?” She sounded worried.

Virgil shook his head. “I… don’t think so. I _hope_ not. I think I’ve ever actually met their mom once and their dad only a glance. I totally forgot he had a brother until I met him after orientation.”

He skipped over the fact he had an attack over seeing Roman. They had conditioned him to not tell her he had been _weak._

“Oh, honey.” The tension was still in her white-knuckled grip. “I’m sorry. I know you had said you wanted to come to that school to escape everything.”

“I still can. I just have to make sure Roman… He never connects that the _gang_ Remus is in had me in it too.”

His mom choked on air, spluttering. “Gang?!”

“Yeah! He called us a gang during Creative Writing!” He launched into quickly retelling what happened the day before.

His mother went from choking on her own tongue to cackling. “A gang! That’s great. I’ll be sure to tell that to my co-workers. They’ll get a kick out of that.”

She turned off the highway as they reached the right exit, and there was a comfortable silence that fell over them.

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still never truly understood the teachers-only-use-last-names-to-address-any-student thing, because at the schools I've been to (either for field experience, or from being a student myself) teachers always used first names.  
Also hey! Look! It Thomas! And a bit more insight to Virgil's life before the story began!


	4. Friends

Adjusting to the new school wasn’t as hard as Virgil feared it would be. By the end of September, he was used to the routine he and Patton created. Patton was always awake before him, and would be heading back from the showers by the time Virgil woke up, the collar of his shirt damp thanks to his still drying hair.

His roommate learned within the first week not to directly, enthusiastically interact with Virgil until they were in the common area with some breakfast. Virgil ignored the cereals and fruits for tea. He had seen there was a coffee machine, and some of the other guys, Logan included, seemed to chug it like college students, so he was never going to touch the thing. He didn’t need the heart attack waiting to happen.

Like a mother hen, Patton would titter happily with their classmates and Virgil – after he had taken his first sip, of course – talking about homework or the coming weekend or a show he knew the other was really into – Virgil could barely keep up with how the kid could know so many different shows and his conspiracy theorist ass was ready to say Patton had some sort of superpowers or something – until it was time to get to homeroom.

Virgil would simply watch and interact with grunts, often leaving earlier to go back to their room and putting on his uniform and makeup. By the time he returned with his pack, Patton, Logan, and the Drama Prince were waiting by the door.

It took a while to notice, pushing past their nerdy exterior, to see how the three were just so god-damned liked. They were like, any trio from any teen drama that were the Popular Ones, but… they haven’t shown to be assholes. At least Patton wasn’t. He had the patience of a saint if he had been able to put up with Virgil without snapping yet – even before everything, he knew he was a huge prick – and seemed to be friends with everyone. During groupwork, many classmates would try to be the first to bring him in their group, although not all of them wanted Patton to work.

He noticed the same with Logan and Roman. Roman, it made sense, even with his obnoxiously loud personality. He was dramatic, but smart, especially in English or Creative Writing. Virgil had heard his poems he’d recite by heart for the class when Mr. Sanders asked for volunteers. If it weren’t for who he was, Virgil would have <strike>liked</strike> found him tolerable as a friend.

As for Logan, it was surprising how popular he was, but Virgil guessed it had to do with the school being for smart kids – he could still remember stressing over the entrance exam and taking the full time to finish it by reading each question painstakingly slow – so the nerds above nerds were like the Plastics amongst these students.

The realization that Virgil was <strike>friends</strike> associated with the three most popular guys in his year hit when classmates would wave to him or give him pleasant, polite smiles. Treating him with the same consideration they did with the three.

It terrified him. All eyes on him, like a celebrity. Who knew how many were faking it. How many were jealous, waiting for Virgil to slip up, waiting for the school to turn on him like he was so sure it would do. Waiting for him to be _expelled-_

“Virgil.” Mrs. Nexus’ voice shocked him like lightning. “Solve for _x, _please.”

His heartrate spiked as he scrambled to look at the equation. _6=2(x+2)_ Eyes watched him, some bored, others attentive and the thoughts from before threatened to overtake his calculations.

“Uh, o-one.” He answered, his face warm and wishing everyone would _look away already, look away go away go away run away-_

“Correct.” Mrs. Nexus turned to the board and began explaining how _x _was one, writing out how to find it out while a couple of students wrote what she said.

Virgil tuned her out and ducked his head between his arms on his desk, shutting his eyes tightly and trying to get his dumb brain to stop sounding like D-

A gentle hand rested on his shoulder, and Virgil only sat next to Patton in Math, so he knew it wasn’t some other kid. Still, he stiffened at the touch and quickly the hand withdrew. Virgil took another breath before tilting his head enough to look over his arm at the nerd, the concern and what could only be pride for Virgil getting the answer right the first time socked the air from his lungs. Friends genuinely caring for one another still felt… fake, even after a month of being thrust into the friendship with Patton.

_“You okay?”_ Patton mouthed when he saw Virgil looking at him, and only when he gave a curt nod in return did the teen look away to focus on the class again.

The bell rang and everyone around him hurried to put their stuff in their bags to get out for lunch. Patton and Virgil packed up at a slower pace, and he could feel the questioning look before his roommate had to open his mouth.

“I’m good, Pat.” Virgil said just as Patton took a breath to ask. “Just got startled by the question. Wasn’t paying attention to class.”

“Alright. C’mon, I think lunch today is Mac and Cheese!” Once Virgil hiked his backpack over a shoulder, Patton grabbed his hand. It was the one physical thing that he did that Virgil didn’t stiffen every time he did – the hugs had stopped a week ago because of how uncomfortable Virgil got until he had to verbally say stop – so he allowed Patton to drag him out of the classroom, following the rivers of students towards the cafeteria.

The noise was almost overwhelming, but a familiar kind. Virgil had to suffer through them before, and while he didn’t like it, he knew how to blanket the noise into a muted thing. He shuffled closer to Patton as they grabbed food in the line, showed their student IDs to get scanned as payment, before they promptly left the cafeteria.

Virgil was always so relieved Patton, Logan, and Roman ate outside when the weather was nice. Logan seemed to share Virgil’s disinclination towards large groups, so at least Virgil hadn’t had to have an attack or something to get away from the crowds.

Roman was already seated in some shade under a large tree, holding his bowl of mac and cheese to his chest as he wolfed it down. He grunted a greeting to the other two, still eating. Roman seemed to do everything single-mindedly, even eating. Virgil couldn’t believe he was related to Remus.

“Where’s Lo?” Patton asked as he sat down, setting his drink on the ground next to Roman’s. “He got out of class before us, shouldn’t he have gotten his food already?”

“Probably went to the dorms to make his own lunch.” Virgil supplied, playing with his food in his lap once he was sitting down as well, leaning against the trunk of the tree.

“Oh. Yeah, maybe.” Patton relaxed and Virgil wondered how he just noticed how his friend – the word remained tainted in his mind – seemed to be subconsciously tense. _Maybe it was his mother hen tendencies._

Virgil’s guess turned out to be right, when Logan arrived with a Ziploc-ed sandwich.

Halfway through lunch, after they all finished eating and while Roman had taken Logan as his current ‘dance partner’ – _“I need to get this part perfect for the audition, Lo! And you’re the only one who knows how to waltz properly! Now shut up and dance, Princess.”_ – Patton fidgeted, watching the two with a fond smile.

“Hey, think we can do a sleepover weekend?” He called, managing to make the dancers pause for only a moment before Roman took the lead again.

“Sure! My brother’s been getting on my nerves, and he seemed to have made home the new Base of Operations.” Virgil saw the eyeroll as the dancers twirled. He wondered how they were able to keep a beat with no music at all.

“I will ask my parents, but I don’t think they’ll argue to it.”

Virgil kept quiet, not sure if Patton was asking him as well, and played with his empty bowl.

“V?” Patton was looking at him, _when did he turn in his direction, how did he do that,_ with an expectant tilt of his head. “Do you think you wanna come over to my place for the weekend? It’ll just be the four of us, and my little sister and parents.”

“I, uh, I should ask my mom.” Virgil wanted to delay the decision as long as possible without being too last-minute.

“Of course! It’ll be really chill. We’ve got a System now. Saturday we usually work on homework so Sunday is Lazy Day.” Patton said with a wide grin that infected the corners of Virgil’s lips. “And then every night, Roman tries to make us play sleepover games like Truth or Dare, but we don’t usually do them because Logan likes a routine in his sleep schedule, even on the weekends.” He made a face that got Virgil to snort behind his hand.

“I’ll, I’ll ask her after classes.” He responded with a nod.

Just then, the two heard a loud yelp as Roman dipped Logan, and suddenly the bookworm nerd was clinging to the Drama Prince to not fall.

“Warn me next time!” He yelled, his face red as Roman pulled him back up. He dusted himself off. “What if you dropped the poor person you plan on dancing with because they hadn’t known you were going to freaking dip them!”

“Lo, c’mon.” Roman exaggerated his expression to look like he was trying to get a lover to accept his apology in some drama show, grabbing Logan's hand and holding it to his chest. “It had been the perfect time to dip! The stars had aligned, and I wasn’t going to do something stupid like drop you!”

The bell rang before the argument could go any further, and Logan huffed as he walked away. Patton snickered behind a hand as he stood up with Virgil. They threw their trash away and headed back into the rivers of students to get to their next classes inside the school.

After classes, Virgil sent a text to his mom.

**[Virgil] Patton asked me to come over for the weekend. Roman and Logan are going.**

**[Virgil] It’s apparently a thing they’ve been doing for a while.**

**[Virgil] Objections?**

He pocketed his phone as he and Patton headed to their room, both still tired from gym that had been just after lunch. He thanked autocorrect for working correctly as he wrote, because he was sure if not for it, some of his words would have looked indescribable.

They reached their floor when his mom answered.

**[Mom] Have fun Nerd!**

Virgil smirked at the message once he read it and put his phone away.

“She said I’m good to see your house this weekend.” He told his roommate as Patton unlocked the door and held it open for the two of them to enter.

“Great!” Patton beamed brightly at him, a bit more energy returning to his voice and actions. “Your mom won’t need to pick you up tomorrow. My dad has a minivan. That’ll fit us all.”

“Okay.” Virgil took out his phone again to repeat the message to his mom before he got a thumbs-up emoji in reply.

As he dropped his phone on his desk, he thought about his new friends at the school idly. They were so different from Them. The very opposite, in fact. It was pretty amazing how one day could change his entire outlook on his life.

He could only hope things will continue to look up.

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He just had to jinx himself, didn't he?


	5. Sleepover P.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, I have a two-parter for some mostly filler fluff of a sleepover weekend. Enjoy!

Virgil stared at his shirts in his dresser, before he glanced over at his backpack. Patton had told him to only bring a couple change of clothes, anything that could fit in his bag, and that he would bring their shared books. Since he didn’t need to bring home a change of clothes, Patton said he was always the book boy.

Virgil tried hard to ignore the radiant, goofy smile at what must have been a pun or inside joke that he hadn’t been a part of.

With a quick glance to the alarm clock, he grabbed a shirt and shut the drawer. He had already shoved a couple pairs of pants and underwear. He only needed to add his toiletries and the shirt in his hands and he’d be ready.

Patton sat on his bed, either playing a game or texting someone on his phone, his glasses glinting in the reflected light. Yet he continued to make light, one-sided conversation with Virgil.

“It’ll be fun to show you around my street! We have a park under a block away, with a lot of swings. Lo, Ro, and I always try to wrap around the swing.” He had a distant smile.

“Logan does that?” Virgil’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He couldn’t imagine the nerd doing something so stupid.

“He wants to prove that it’s possible.” The other teen clicked his phone and the reflected light disappeared, and put it in his pocket. “If you let him, he’ll go on and on about momentum or whatever.”

“Uh, good to know, I guess.” Virgil shoved his shirt into his bag and zipped it shut. His toiletries would go in one of the smaller pockets.

“Hup!” Patton got up from his bed with a clap of his hands. He looked like he was bouncing already. “Okay! Let’s get the others and then we’ll head to the drop-off. My dad said he’s here.”

Virgil slung his bag over a shoulder once he was finished gathering everything and headed to the door, just as a knock sounded.

“Do you wanna build a snowman?” Roman’s voice sang through the door and Virgil contained the sigh he wanted to make. He had thought he was annoyed with Frozen before. He now loathed everything about it.

“Go away, Anna~” Patton tried singing back. It was more a squeal of words.

“Okay, bye~” Virgil couldn’t understand how Roman could put so much fake emotion in his singing, but he could, and he did.

“But we aren’t going anywhere.” Virgil smirked at Logan’s words. At least he wasn’t the only one done with Patton and Roman’s shenanigans.

At least the shenanigans they did were harmless.

He opened the door to see Roman looking scandalized by Logan before he turned with such drama, one would think Logan genuinely hurt the Drama Prince's feelings. The two had their own backpacks stuffed with clothes and the books from classes they didn’t share with Patton.

“Can you believe him?” Roman asked, shaking his head tragically as he dropped his hand from against his chest. “Always taking things so literally. Worse than my brother.”

_Logan is nothing like Remus._ Virgil bit back his response, turning his head to see if Patton had followed him to the door before the knock. He couldn’t hide the smirk at the splutters the Drama Prince made at his lack of engagement to the nonsense.

“Okay, we’re ready!” Patton chirped, hiking his bag over his shoulders again, and he looked more like a kindergartner than a freshman with how hyper he bounced. “Let’s go!”

* * *

Virgil knew he was an awkward kid, but to be rendered mute the entire car ride from the school to Patton’s home was a new one. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so silent without having his headphones on.

Patton’s father was where he guessed Patton got most of his genetics from, even the personality. It made him wonder about how Remus and Roman could be related if their parents were nothing like either twin.

Virgil shook the thought before it could sink in.

They reached the house after about an hour’s drive, although it felt more like a day, and Virgil looked up at the cozy looking building. It looked like a White Suburban Household, complete with a white picket fence bordering the perimeter.

“You boys put your stuff away. I have to get Tamara now.” Mr. Starr told them once they stopped on the driveway. “School should have just ended for her now.”

“She doesn’t go to Miscape?” Virgil finally spoke outside of the quiet ‘hi’ as he had entered the van.

“Nope! Only Pat’s gone to Miscape. The others all were in the public system.” Mr. Starr clapped his son’s shoulder warmly, causing the teen to giggle before he headed out of the van. “We asked Tammy if she wanted to go, but she wanted to follow their older siblings.”

“Oh. Okay.” Virgil spoke quietly as he nodded slowly.

He slid out of the van with Roman and Logan, clutching his backpack by the straps. Patton and Roman waved enthusiastically to Mr. Starr while Logan headed toward the front door. Virgil followed so he wouldn’t stand in one spot for much longer.

The interior of the house was just as homely as Virgil imagined it. Photos lined the walls in the foyer, and up the stairs. The closet right next to the front door was open, showing a mess of outdoor coats and shoes scattered around. It was as if they flung their shoes into the closet haphazardly.

Logan gave a defeated sigh, like he had the same thought as Virgil. He toed his shoes off and placed them together by the interior wall of the closet, and Virgil followed suit, placing his own shoes next to the bookworm’s.

“Welcome to Starr residency.” Logan sighed. “His room at school is actually tame. You’ll see the nightmare.”

“Nightmare?” Patton’s voice caused both to jump, and Roman laughed at their reactions. “What nightmare?”

The two that had been startled gripped their shirts, and Logan exhaled loudly through his nose. “My waking nightmare that is your room here.”

“Aww, come on, Lo! It’s not so bad anymore!” Patton defended, slipping out of his shoes and kicking them into the closet. “I’ve cleaned up my room a lot more since you’ve been over last! I even kept that list thingy you made!”

Logan simply rose an unimpressed eyebrow at the other before he headed further into the house. Despite the familial mess of a lively home, Logan seemed to be at ease within its walls. Virgil couldn’t say he felt completely at ease in the place.

“Come on, V, I’ll show you around, and then we can watch some Netflix movies. You get to pick, since it’s your first time over!” Patton took Virgil’s wrist and tugged him along.

The first floor held the kitchen, dining room, living room, and a small bathroom beside the door to the garage. The kitchen was possibly the cleanest place on the floor, where everything had a place – even if the inside of the fridge looked a bit haphazard – while the living room looked like no one knew how to put blankets and pillows back. But it looked lived in, and warm.

The second floor held the bedrooms. Each occupied room had either a piece of paper or a wooden plaque with their names – Tamara and Patton’s were the only paper ones, and Virgil noticed how Patton apparently shared his room with a sibling named Alex while Tamara shared with a Jay. Instead of paper or a plaque, the master bedroom’s door was painted, childish handprints along the bottom in blue and teal. There was an unoccupied guest bedroom, and next to it was a large bathroom that looked only half cleaned. Virgil decided not to leave his toiletries in the bathroom so he wouldn’t lose them in the mess of hairbrushes, toothbrushes, towels and other bathroom necessities.

“Okay, so, Logan normally stays in the guest bedroom because me and Ro like to stay up and just talk about anything on our minds.” Patton said outside the cleanest room in the entire house. Virgil could see Logan’s influence in the guestroom. “You don’t have to decide now, but when it’s time for bed, you can decide if you wanna stay in my room or Lo’s unofficial room.”

“Uh, okay.” Virgil nodded as Patton mostly closed the door.

“Okay, and the tour’s now done! Let’s get back to the living room and find something to watch!”

They went back down, and Virgil saw Logan and Roman’s backpacks leaning against the recliner as they made themselves comfortable on the large dark couch. Patton quickly added his bag to the pile and after a second hesitation, Virgil dropped his carefully by the pile, looking at the available seats. The couch seemed completely taken by the other teens, but there was a loveseat, and the recliner, with an old, wooden coffee table between them all and the large flat-screen on the wall.

Patton flopped onto the loveseat, taking one side and tucking his legs under him. He patted the other side with a large smile directed at Virgil, and before he could think, Virgil was already sitting next to his roommate, sitting with his legs up to his chest.

“So, what are we watching?” Roman asked, swiping up the remote control and turning on the television.

“Well, it’s Virgil’s decision, so do you know what you wanna watch?” Patton looked to the other.

“Uhh, not really.” He shook his head, his bangs fully covering an eye. “I haven’t watched anything from Netflix in a while.”

“That’s okay. What do you like to watch?”

“Uhh, anything I guess.”

“Here, indecisive mess.” Roman said as he threw the remote at him. It whacked his knee before Virgil managed to grab it. “Take your pick.”

It didn’t take long for a thumbnail to catch Virgil’s attention, and he paused over the title. He had heard nothing but good praise about it from his mother, who had shown him the first episode, but at that time…

“Oh this show is great! I’ve seen all the episodes at least twice! It’s so creepy and cool!” Roman declared. “Have you watched it, Emo Nightmare? It seems right up your alley.”

“No, I think I watched the first episode only. It looked cool though, I guess.” He shrugged, wrapping an arm around his legs and rested his head on his knees.

“So, Stranger Things?” Logan questioned.

“Uh, sure, yeah.” Virgil clicked the button and handed the remote to Patton, who gently tossed it to the coffee table.

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire thing took much too long to write. I had the largest writer's block over the question: What are guy sleepovers like?  
Also, updated relationships. THey finally decided to tell me if they wanted to get together by the end of the fic.
> 
> In other words, school is kicking my ass so updates may be slow. But hey, watching my students should... maybe help with writing this as well, lmao. We'll see!


	6. Sleepover P.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A 2-parter turns into a 3-parter, whoops~ Enjoy the fluff

Patton, despite how he may have been acting, was always nervous showing a new friend to his family. Especially when he knew said friend was awkward and shy and not really a fan of a lot of loud noises. It had been the same thing when Logan first came over for a sleepover.

_ Huh, Lo and V are really similar. Huh. _ Patton looked between his roommate and his other quieter friend. The two sat on the large couch, taking an edge each with Roman taking the middle. Well, he was taking the middle and Logan’s lap with his legs, leaning against Virgil’s side that he didn’t seem to be opposed to. He had the funny thought that, had he not known they weren’t related at all, Patton would have believed they were brothers or something.

Virgil was evidently relaxing the longer they watched the fourth episode of Stranger Things. He tensed only when Patton’s dad and Tammy got back home, but quickly returned to focusing on the show. Patton, having already watched the first season before, couldn’t stop from glancing over to his new friend, hoping he was enjoying it so far, but couldn’t tell what ‘it’ was specifically. The house or the show. He hoped Virgil enjoyed both, anyway.

They were finishing the fourth episode when Patton’s mom came home with pizza, calling the boys to help set the table. Virgil was exempt - for the night, anyway, since he didn’t know where anything was - and he sat at the table and even Patton could tell he felt awkward, but setting the table took less than a minute and they were soon digging into the pizzas - a large hawaiian, a large pepperoni, and a large all-dressed - along with the large box of onion rings his family always bought with their pizza. Virgil had given a confused look at the onion rings, but made no comment.

“So, how has your week been, kiddos?” Patton’s mom asked after taking a drink of her water, smiling at each of Patton’s friends, including Virgil.

“It’s been satisfactory, Mrs. Starr.” Logan replied, covering his mouth as he finished his first piece. He was always the slowest eater, as Patton, Roman, and even Virgil were all on their second or third piece. “We had a test on Monday in math.”

“Oh? And how did you all do?” Patton’s dad spoke around his slice before taking a huge bite.

“Not in their math class, couldn’t tell you.” Roman shrugged.

“Precisely ninety percent. I only got a couple questions wrong because I mixed up the equations.” Logan responded.

“I got about a 73?” Patton answered, looking down at his plate. Math had never been his strong suit.

Virgil stayed quiet until Patton’s mom turned her eyes on him with a patient smile.

“What about you, Virgil?” He seemed startled she knew his name, which was pretty funny to Patton. “You’re in all of Patton’s classes besides options, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” His voice was quiet and unsure, and he put his slice on his plate to cough in a hand. “I did well. Math has kinda been… one of my favourite classes?”

“Oh yeah!” Patton suddenly remembered sneaking a glance at Virgil’s paper when it had been returned. “He did better than Logan! A 97 percent!”

“Algebra’s easy…” Patton only just heard Virgil’s response over his parents and Logan’s surprised exclamations.

“He’s really smart!” Trying to slightly divert the attention from him friend when he saw how he was trying to hide in his hoodie, Patton leant forward. “He studies really hard, like Logan-levels.”

“Oh gods, there’s two of them.” Roman bemoaned, but he looked as shocked as the others.

After the test, Virgil hadn’t shown his marks like Logan and Patton had, and Pat had temporarily forgot when Logan reprimanded him for not studying as much as he should have.

“I wish to propose study sessions then.” Logan announced, looking sharply at Virgil until there was a slight movement towards a nod. “Fantastic. I’ve tried to have study sessions with Patton and Roman and they are deplorable. Maybe you can help.”

Virgil shrugged, and thankfully Tammy had a story to tell about some math study sessions in the past she remembers from the previous year, and the focus finally left the older teens.

* * *

After dinner, Patton’s little sister took over the television, forcing four of them to head to Patton’s room to settle down for the night.

“Logan, staying up a bit?” He asked, looking at his friend and the alarm clock he had beside his bed.

“I suppose. It’s not too late.” Logan shrugged, grabbing his backpack. “I’m just going to change to get comfortable.”

“Yeah, I propose we all get changed so we don’t throw off the groove.” Roman spoke with authority, grabbing his own backpack and rummaging through for his pajamas.

Logan left the room for the bathroom while Roman stripped in Patton’s room. Both Virgil and Patton politely looked away. Roman kept forgetting that just because he was used to getting changed into different costumes for the plays he’s in didn’t mean the others were completely used to it. The first time Virgil had witnessed that, he had spun so fast in the locker room he whacked his head on an open locker door.

Virgil just about bolted out of the room once he had his own night clothes, waiting for Logan to exit to change in the privacy of the upstairs bathroom.

Logan opened the door within a couple minutes, wearing dark blue plaid pants that reached past his ankles, his socked feet just barely peeking out, and a tank top that made his chest look different, more lumpy for some reason. He looked surprised to see Virgil waiting right on the other side of the door, adjusting his glasses.

“Oh, apologies, Virgil.” He said, moving to one side as Virgil quickly stepped out of the way as well. “I was not holding you up too long, was I?”

“No, no, Roman was just changing in Pat’s room.” He shook his head.

“Ah, yes.” Logan rolled his eyes, holding his worn clothes to his chest. “I have to keep reprimanding him to use the bathroom or to wait until I am in the bathroom to change for the day in our dorms. He is infuriating sometimes.”

He walked out of the bathroom, partially gesturing to it for Virgil. “Anyway, it is all yours now.”

“Thanks.” Virgil nodded and headed in, closing the door behind him to change into his own pajamas, Nightmare before Christmas pants and an MCR band shirt his mom had gotten him for Christmas the year before. He wanted to bring his Spider-man top but Patton was even scared of Spider-man and the two had a long debate about it weeks before. Now that it was the Spooky Month of October, Virgil was about to make it his mission to acclimatize his scaredy-cat roommate to cartoon spiders, at the very least.

When Virgil returned to Patton’s room, dressed comfortably, he saw the other three were all settling on the full size bed, with Roman taking the most room until Virgil decided to force him to make room.

“Move.” He ordered, jumping up on the bed and sitting on Roman’s ass hard. The Drama Prince yelped and squirmed to sit up, crossing his arms as Logan and Patton snickered by the headboard.

“Fine, fine! Get off me, you hooligan!” He bucked Virgil off, sending him sprawling into the other two with a victorious huff.

“You’re such an ass.” Virgil stuck his tongue out at Roman as he got off the other two who both groaned as he pressed fists into their stomachs to get up and off them. “What are we doing now?”

“Regret our decisions to come here.” Logan groaned, doubling over. Patton patted him on the back.

“Aw, come on, Logan, it’s not so bad. Look, you haven’t even commented on my room yet!”

Virgil looked around, now that he had time to take it in. He had to agree with Logan’s previous statement when they had just gotten to the Starr residence: the dorm room was much cleaner than this room. Piles of plushies, various blankets and pillows scattered the floor, with another portion of the pillows on the bed they were on. Patton had a television on the wall across from his bed on a very large desk, cluttered with old, worn notebooks and a Switch off to one side. Along the walls were bookshelves filled with an assortment of either books or even more plushies or framed photographs. The other bed was possibly the cleanest thing in the room, but that would also be a bit of a stretch. Above the beds held trophies, but Virgil couldn’t entirely tell what they were for. A couple did look like some kind of sport.

“How much of it was Alex’s work?” Logan looked like a parent scolding a child, which wasn’t that far off from the truth.

“Uhhh.” Patton whistled, not meeting Logan’s gaze with a sheepish smile.

“That’s what I thought.” Logan rolled his eyes and Virgil snickered at the interaction.

It had been a long time since he had relaxed this much at a friend’s place. Then again, it had been almost a full year since he was last invited to a friend’s place. Or had friends.

“While we still have Google and Bing,” Roman gestured to Logan and Virgil with a flourish, “we should play something!”

“Like what?” Patton asked, wrapping an arm around Logan at the exact same time as Roman pulled Virgil towards him by the middle. Both ignored the others' calls for freedom, although Logan’s were more resigned, as if this happened every time.

“I was thinking either Truth or Dare,  _ or,” _ Roman grinned so wide, it was like he wasn’t even wrestling with Virgil, “Never Have I Ever.”

“How about Truth or Dare. Never Have I Ever takes too long and Logan will want to back out before it’s nine.” A quick glance told the teens that was going to happen in about an hour and a half.

“No!” Logan and Virgil cried, but they fell on deaf ears. When Roman and Patton wanted to do something, they see it through. It was annoying.

Roman hugged Virgil to his chest as Logan was cornered to the wall and Patton’s arm, until the two finally stopped struggling, resigned to their fates.

“Okay!” Roman clapped his hands, his arms still wrapped around Virgil as if he were going to bolt the moment he wasn’t held down - he was still debating if he should or not - and rested his chin on his shoulder to look at the other two. “Patton! Truth or dare?”

“Uh, truth.” Patton scooched back to let Logan have a bit more room, leaning forward.

“Hmm, have you… no, you have that’s too easy.” Roman finally let go of Virgil as he thought of a question, and the thinner teen immediately moved away from him, taking the middle of the bed for some breathing room. “Aha! If you were rescuing people from a burning building, and you had to leave one person behind from this room, who would it be?”

Patton’s eyes went wide in dismay. “No! You can’t make me choose! I’d do my darnedest to save everyone!”

“Fine, who would you save last? Say you had just enough time to save all three of us, who’d you save last?” Roman leaned forward with a bright smirk.

“Okay, uhm…” Patton looked between the three of them. “I… Okay, so I’d save Logan first, because he’s the slowest and forget to get low to avoid the smoke or something” -”Hey!” Logan interjected- “then I’d save Virgil,” -”What?” Both Virgil and Roman questioned in varied incredulous tones- “hang  _ on,  _ I’m getting there!” He held his hands up placatingly. “I’d save Virgil because I know Roman would be able to save himself. He’s a knight, remember?”

Roman’s face went pink and he almost did a full _“aw shucks”_ cartoon reaction.

“He can save himself. I’d save Virgil after saving Logan because I want to make sure I know he’ll be okay.” His eyes flitted briefly to Virgil before they quickly looked away. “Then I’d save Roman if he hasn’t already gotten out himself.”

The Drama Prince huffed and crossed his arms, but there was no real anger or ill-intent in his actions. “Okay, fine, I  _ guess _ it makes sense. I would definitely make it out of a burning building first.” He struck a pose that got Patton giggling. “Anyway, you’re turn, Pat.”

“Okay! Virgil!” The teen jumped at his name being called, grabbing a loose pillow and hugged it to his chest. “Truth or dare?”

“Can I not?” He asked in a small voice that was almost instantly overpowered.

“Nope! Gotta, Emo Nightmare.” Roman decreed.

Virgil groaned, shoving his face into the pillow. “Fine.” He popped his head back up. “Truth, I guess.”

“I’ll go easy.” Patton said with a soft smile, and Virgil realized his stomach felt weird. Maybe it was the food they ate? “Have you… eeeeeever ding dong ditched someone?”

“Uh,” Virgil frowned and looked away from his friends, hugging the pillow tightly, “yeah. A couple times.”

“Wow, a little rebel.” Roman joked, nudging Virgil with his foot. “Why’d you do them?”

“Friends.” Virgil shrugged, refusing to answer anything more.

“Your friends made you ding dong ditch people?” Patton questioned. “That doesn’t sound very fun.”

“Well, whatever, I’m not friends with them anymore.” He pushed himself to get the words out. It was the first time he ever spoke those words aloud, and it felt… he felt lighter, strangely. Finally being able to admit it, not just saying he hated them or something. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Logan, truth or dare.”

“Oh, uhm…” Logan looked startled, before he sighed and shook his head. “Dare.”

“Uhhh, okay, I…” Virgil had no idea what to make Logan do, so he chose the first thing that came to mind. “I dare you to… name 20 multiples of 12 within a minute.”

Patton scrambled to grab his phone as Logan blinked, his brows furrowed, confused.

“Ready? Go!” Patton cried and Logan’s mouth was open before he seemed to realize it.

“12, 24, 36,” the nerd shut his eyes and tapped his fingers as he recited the numbers with ease, “48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108.”

Logan paused, holding a finger as he either just took a breath or had to think about where he was. Each second felt like an hour. “108, 120, 132, 144, 156, 168, 180, 192, 204, 216, 228, 240.”

He took an almost over-dramatic breath once he was finished, opening his eyes and bowing forward in an odd bow. Patton and Roman were quick to clap, Virgil joining in with his eyebrows raised.

“Impressive, nerd.” He said with a small smile, that quickly got the nerd to smile as well, his cheeks going pink.

“It’s simple math. I could probably get through a few more if I wanted to.” He adjusted his glasses.

“Still, I couldn’t do that in a minute.”

“Yeah, Lo! That was amazing!” Patton cried. “You did it in like, under the minute by a lot!”

“Thank you, I guess.” The smile didn’t leave his face, though he did try to hide it. “Roman, truth or-”

“Truth!” As extra as ever, Roman couldn’t wait for the words to be out of Logan’s mouth.

He huffed and thought for a moment, but the moment he seemed to think of a question to ask, his eyes snapped up to Roman’s with a glint, smirking. “Would you go a year without your phone if it meant you could marry the person of your dreams?”

Roman gasped, his hand clutching his chest as if the question physically assaulted him. “How dare you make me choose!” He said, mock scandalized. “That’s imposs-I would _obviously_ go without my phone. Marry the person of my  _ dreams? _ Hell. Yes. It’s not even a question.”

The three snickered at the answer.

The game went on for a few more rounds, most of the Truths very benign and the Dares silly but harmless, before Logan yawned and stretched his arms over his head.

“Okay, this has been… Adequate, but I must sleep if you wish to see the light of day again.” There was a threat in his voice that Virgil couldn’t tell if it was genuine or a joke.

Roman rolled his eyes and yawned as well, shaking his head quickly when he seemed to realize what he did. “Stop making me yawn! I’m not even tired!”

“Goodnight, Lo! Sleep well.” Patton shifted to allow the nerd a way off the bed without scrambling over someone, and he turned to look at Virgil. “Are you gunna stay up with us or head off to sleep with Logan in his unofficial room?”

“I think…” Virgil took a deep breath and stretched his arms high over his head. “I think I’m ready to hit the hay. It’s been fun, nerds but I’m going with the bookworm to sleep.”

He scooched himself off the bed, ignoring the groaning from Roman, and headed after Logan to the guestroom that was the cleanest thing in the entire Starr residence.

“You don’t take up the entire bed, do you?” Logan asked, lifting his glasses with the back of his palm, rubbing his eyes. “If you do, you’re taking the floor.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow, but shook his head in answer. He typically tried to make himself as small as possible, especially during sleepovers. His… The others he had sleepovers with back in middle school took up most of the bed, often sleep-fighting with each other over the most room. Virgil really only fought to have his small space and his blanket.

Logan nodded, satisfied, and got into bed. Virgil followed, a little awkward but both boys were tired and any anxiety Virgil could have about sleeping in the same bed as one of his newer, kinder friends was pushed away at the promise of a comfortable night’s rest.

“Do you want the wall?” Logan asked, grabbing one of the few fat fluffy pillows on the bed to hold to his chest - he kept doing that since coming out of the bathroom, Virgil idly noticed - and looked to him.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I don’t really move much in my sleep, so I’ll be good with the corner.” He answered, and clambered around Logan to get to the wall-side of the bed. “You probably should have the other side, anyway. Easier to grab your glasses, right?”

“Correct.” Logan looked surprised, a small smile briefly appearing on his face before a yawn took it away. “Thank you, Virgil. Goodnight.”

“Night.” Virgil got himself comfortable under the covers, careful to keep enough space between him and Logan so they didn’t touch.

Logan turned off the light, and the room went quiet except the sounds of soft breathing, distant giggles from Patton’s room faintly heard, and the soft hum of electricity all over the house.

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The boys are bonding!! They're really bonding! Lookit that


	7. Sleepover P.3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: This will be a slow burn, Pat and Virgil won't admit their feelings to anyone until much later  
Roman, somehow smelling the romance: DING DONG YOU ARE WRONG  
Me, now batting him with a broom: *let them PINE DAMMIT*

The minute Logan and Virgil left Patton’s room, Roman pounced on his friend, grabbing his ankles with a knowing glint in his eyes that felt like he knew all of Patton’s deepest, darkest secrets - there really weren’t many, but that was beside the point.

“Truth or dare.” There was a smile that bordered on smirking.

Knowing Roman, Patton wasn’t sure there would be a way to get out of whatever he was about to admit to his long-time best friend. “Truth?”

The smile was blazing and he dropped his voice as if Virgil or Logan would be able to hear them if they spoke any louder. “Tell me your true thoughts on the emo nightmare. Why you like him so much.”

Instantly, Patton’s face went warm, and Roman seemed to understand immediately, crowing in laughter that he tried very hard to keep contained.

“Why do I have to tell you that?” Patton pushed his friend away, looking anywhere but at him as his face flamed on.

“I knew it! You _ like _him!” Roman stage-whispered, his voice straining to stay low. “You’re so obvious, Pat, oh my god.”

“What? No I’m not!” Patton whipped his head to face him, eyes wide. He hadn’t… had he? “I, I don’t… He’s just a friend!”

“Yeah? Then why have you never acted like this around me or Logan?” Roman crowded Patton on the bed, grabbing his hands and smiling widely. “Come on, man, tell me what you think of him.”

“He’s…” Patton sighed. He might as well be truthful. “Mysterious. Quiet, but then when you hear him laugh at one of my jokes, even the ones where he groans along with you but smiles because he likes them despite the fact he, like, acts that he doesn’t around you guys. I barely even know him and we’ve been roomies for a full month now, but I really, really want to. He’s super smart, like Logan! And yet he doesn’t act like he is really smart, and it sucks because he should know how smart he is. I mean, did you see him during supper?”

Roman pulled away from Patton as he started talking, a soft look in his eyes that made it difficult for Patton to keep looking at him without feeling any more flustered than he already was.

“And… and he’s just, so cute. Like, _ all the time. _ It’s unfair. He’s cute when he’s sleeping, when he’s tromping around in the morning before getting breakfast, when he’s working on homework, when he doodles in class but actually still paying attention to whatever our teachers are yammering on about.” It was like a dam broke inside of him, making it impossible to stop talking once he had started. He knew he was probably being foolish, crushing on his roommate he’s only known for a month, but he couldn’t help but… He wasn’t sure even what made Virgil someone he liked so much. They were practically opposites in every way.

That train of thought stopped him cold, and he frowned. “But I don’t think he’d like me. He’s so smart, and cute, and wonderful, and mysterious, and I’m just… me.”

Roman was shaking his head by the time the frown appeared. “Nope, he would be blind not to like you, Pat.” He shook Patton’s leg vigorously. “I mean, I’m already pretty sure he likes guys, so how could he not like you.”

“Stooooooop!” Patton covered his face, feeling how warm his cheeks were.

“Do you need a wingman? Because I will _ totally _ help, Patton.” His words and expression became serious. “Seriously, dude, I’ve never seen you like this, and Virgil seems like he could be a good guy for you.”

“Really?” His words were muffled and very close with his hands over his face, peeking out between fingers. Roman’s face was a bit distorted with his glasses having been pushed off his nose but not knocked off completely.

“Totally! If he can put up with my extra-ness, your puns, and Logan’s… Logan-ness, he’s a keeper.” His smile grew large and he wiggled his shoulders around. “After all, if he wants to be your lover, he’s gotta get with your friends~” He sang, and Patton lost it, laughing loudly.

There was a loud _ thunk _ against a wall, coming from where the guest room was and the two instantly shut up. Patton grew red-faced again, and he buried his head in a nearby pillow while hearing Roman muffle his laughter.

“I think that might be a good signal for us to sleep as well.” Roman suggested.

“Okay… And Ro?” Patton’s voice was very muffled with the pillow in the way, but he wasn’t about to move it.

“Hm?”

“Yes. To be, to be my wingman, and stuff.” He lifted his head to try to look at Roman, but his glasses were squished close and fogged up due to his breathing. “But… not yet. I still wanna get to know him, you know?”

“Of course, Pat! Sounds like a plan.” If he could see, Patton would have seen the mischievous twinkle in his friend’s eye, but by the time he straightened up and took his glasses off for the night, it disappeared.

“Okay. Good night, Ro.” He said, turning off the light before settling into bed. Roman took the other side of the bed, flopping to get comfortable.

“Pleasant dreams, my friend.” He answered.

* * *

Saturday was homework all day, taking occasional breaks to eat or stretch or distract themselves from whatever they were working on. They went through all the homework based on if they were in the same class or not, with the classes none of them took together for the evening. While Virgil, Roman, and Patton worked on English homework - it was just read a chapter of the novel they were reading and answer some boring worksheets to make sure they were actually reading it - Logan worked on his own English and options homework, and while Virgil, Logan, and Patton worked on Math and Science, Roman worked on his own, though he needed help with some of the math questions.

When it came to Math, Logan and Virgil seemed to decide independently to split off and help the weaker two. Logan took Roman, and Virgil helped Patton when he was struggling with a question.

“This is much more efficient, thank you, Virgil.” Logan sighed as they stopped for lunch. “Since our teachers go through the work differently, I normally spend twice as long to help them with math homework.”

He shrugged in answer, looking down at the table and unsure how to handle Logan’s variant of compliments. “Math just makes sense, I guess.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling them too! But they never believe me.” He rolled his eyes as Patton and Roman protested, smirking. He gestured to them. “See what I mean?”

“Listen, we’re not all wired like calculators like you two.” Roman huffed, shaking his head as he made grilled cheese for the four of them, Patton keeping an eye so they didn’t burn the house down. Virgil wanted to argue, knowing the Skeates weren’t the best cooks, but that would require knowing how Roman cooked, and during school, he had never seen the teen in the kitchen area for longer than it took to grab cereal and milk.

After lunch, they split up for Social Studies, as Logan and Roman were in that together, while Virgil and Patton were in that class together. Luckily for the two of them, their teacher wasn’t an asshole and only gave them an easy assignment to complete for Monday, and they were able to finish it in under an hour.

Once they were done with that, Patton checked to see if his option class had any homework before seeming to relax.

“No more homework, Pat?” Virgil asked, pulling out his Creative Writing notebook. He only needed to write a paragraph at least of whatever he wanted so there was no need to wait for Roman to finish.

“Nope, there’s no homework, really, for home ec. All the work is in class unless we have to bring stuff in from home for the cooking classes.”

“That’s cool. So are you the only one here that can actually make food good?”

“I don’t know about that…” Patton mumbled, and when Virgil looked at him, he saw that his cheeks were pink. His freckles looked more distinct, somehow.

“Why?”

“He’s the only one here that can cook without supervision, yes. He’s just trying to be modest because he can't take compliments.” Roman called across the room, making the two jump.

Patton spluttered. “Roman!” He cried, and now his entire face was red. _It was kinda cute_, Virgil thought with a smile.

He quickly snapped out of it and focused on writing the paragraph, not really reading the sentences over, just quickly making sure every word was spelled right.

That night, once the four were finished with homework and just relaxing in Patton’s room again, Virgil decided to stay up with the two when Logan started to yawn, ready to turn in too early on a weekend.

“Yeah, he’s always been weird about bedtime.” Roman waved a dismissive hand as Logan turned in for the night. “He thinks you can’t spice it up on the weekend to ‘maintain a healthy schedule’ or whatever utter nonsense he’s using now. There’s no stopping him. We’ve tried.”

The Drama Prince then smiled widely, a glint in his eyes when Virgil turned to look at him.

“Never have I ever.” Was all Virgil had as a warning before he was dogpiled on both sides by Roman and Patton.

All the air was forced out of his lungs from the combined weight of the two hyper nerds and he couldn’t tap fast enough to give.

“Can’t breathe, assholes!” He pushed as hard as he could, and finally the two got off him. “Fine, fine! You don’t have to keep doing that! I’m not going to run, damn.”

“Just a precaution.” Patton said, before he raised a hand, each finger extended and he wiggled them. “So rules are ten fingers, first one to zero loses.”

“Whatever, I’ve played this before.” Virgil grumbled, sitting cross-legged and laying his hands on his knees.

“Okay, then.” Roman nodded. “Never have I ever… had a sister.”

“That’s a low blow, Ro.” Patton pouted as he tucked his thumb in. “Never have I ever had a twin.”

“Really? Low, my dear Pat.” Roman’s thumb went down.

“Well, never have I ever had siblings.” Virgil smirked as the two groaned and put down another finger each.

“You don’t have _ any _ siblings?” Patton asked.

Virgil shook his head. “Nope, my dad died a couple years after I was born, and my mom never dated. I was too much of a handful for her to focus on anything past me and work and bills.”

“Do you want any? Like, say your mom started dating and they have a kid already or she gets pregnant again?”

He shrugged. “Not my decision. If she wants another kid, sure. I don’t really care, as long as I remain the oldest.” The other two laughed.

“You want my brother?” Roman asked, laughing. “I’d love to trade him for anything.”

“No, I’ve heard about your brother. No way in hell.”

“Fine, fine. Probably for the best.” Roman shook his head, still laughing. “Okay, never have I ever… had my hair dyed for longer than a week at a time.”

Virgil rolled his eyes and tucked his thumb to his palm, but his eyebrows raised when Patton put down another finger.

“What?” The puppy nerd blinked at him. “I had my hair dyed blue first year of middle school. Had it a really pretty bright blue for a couple months before I cut my hair and most of the colour faded away by then.”

“Huh.” Virgil couldn’t imagine the fluffy, wavy brown hair that Patton currently had, being a bright blue. “Weird.”

“Says the purple stormcloud.” Roman rolled his eyes. “Anyway, Patton?”

“Right, yeah. Uhm, never have I ever…” Patton squinted at the other two, as if searching for something. “Gotten detention for misbehaving.”

Virgil sighed and tucked his pinky finger as Roman put down another finger. “Logan would then probably say he’s never gotten detention period, and we’d all have to put down a finger.” Roman rolled his eyes with a smile.

“Well, he’s asleep, so…” Virgil thought for a moment. “Never have I ever worn a dress.”

He was surprised to see both Roman and Patton put a finger down.

“Plays.” Roman explained for himself.

“When I was younger, Tammy and I would be put into dresses and have tea parties with Jay. I actually liked it. They’re cute.” Patton shrugged.

“Huh.” Virgil frowned but made no other comment. He hadn’t thought of Patton ever wearing a dress for no reason, but also wasn’t totally surprised either.

“Never have I ever gotten into a physical fight with someone.” Roman said.

Virgil slowly put his ring finger down.

“Woah, really, Virge? Why?” Patton asked.

He shrugged, looking down at his lap as he thought of a good reason. “They were annoying.”

“When was the last time you were in fight?” The puppy nerd asked, leaning forward.

“Uh…” Virgil struggled to not think about the Lair. “A while ago. Before I applied to join this school, since they have that whole dumb no-bullying policy that they heavily enforce.” _ And was the reason I was almost not accepted to this school _was left unsaid.

“Were you starting them or…?” Roman asked.

“Sometimes starting them. I’d hear rumours that were about my friends and… I don’t like it when people talk about them like that.” Virgil kept his stare down at his lap as he spoke. “Most of the time I was ending them after my friends started them. Rarely was it the others who threw the first punch though.”

“What kind of school did you go to?” Roman asked, aghast.

“Clear Lake Middle School.” He looked up to see Roman stiffen.

“You went _ there?” _ The Drama Prince had eyes as wide as saucers. “I am so sorry.”

“Wait, didn’t Remus go there?” Patton asked quietly, his head tilted like a curious dog.

“Yeah. God, now I get why… You _ knew _ him? Of course you did, you were in his grade, and he is not a wallflower.” Now it was Roman’s turn to stare down at his lap as the other two looked to him. “I’m so sorry. Was he ever…?”

“Uh, yeah.” Technically not a lie, but Virgil knew Roman was asking if Remus had ever fought him or did something against his friends. “He was in a lot of the fights I was in.”

Roman groaned, scrubbing his face with his hands. He pulled them away to look at Virgil with a guilty look as if _ he _ had been the one to have fought Virgil or something. “I am so sorry, about him. And those kids he continues to associate with. They’re… pretty villainous, huh?”

The strangest feeling of hurt sliced through him. Was that really how Roman would have thought of him if not for that Fight with a capital F? A villain? He turned his attention back to his lap and at his fingers still held up. “Whatever. It’s in the past. I’m not anywhere near them now, and I’d rather not remember them.”

“Oh, right, right, yeah.” Roman scrambled, turning to Patton. “Uh, you’re turn, Pat.”

The other looked with large round eyes behind his glasses, eyes fixed on Virgil until Roman had spoken to him. He jumped and blathered what _ almost _ sounded like words. They continued the game, and Patton won after they switched to quick-fire prompts - never failed a test, never lost my phone, never broke something that belonged to someone else, never got grounded, among several other prompts.

Roman yawned widely. “I think it’s time we hit the hay. You staying in here tonight, Virge?” He asked, looking over to him with a sleepy, owlish blink.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, I think so. I don’t want to wake up the nerd.” He replied, rubbing his eyes to stave off the exhaustion for just another couple minutes. “Where, uh, how should we do this?”

“We should have enough for us to sleep with two of us sleeping like this and the other sleeping on the opposite side.” Patton suggested, gesturing how two would sleep head toward the headboard, while the final would sleep head towards the end of the bed. “Or one of you could sleep in Alex’s bed if you think it’ll be too squished.”

“Uh, guess the first one works. I don’t want to sleep in your br-in Alex’s bed.” Virgil yawned, the claws of sleep sinking in.

Roman took the end of the bed as Patton and Virgil settled in to sleep on the other side, and if he cared to notice the pink cheeks on the puppy nerd or the cheeky but sleepy smile directed at Patton on the Drama Prince’s face, he would have paused and given thought to it, but he saw nothing as the lights had been turned off and he was asleep before his head could register the pillow under his head.

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait yall, I got really into another fic(gunna be Big Bang fic, I'm excited!) so I had put this fic on pause for a bit to write the other. Even though I had this chapter like, 90% done when I put it on pause >.> But it's here! Lookit that, the boys are telling their seeeeccccrrrreeettttsssss~  
Also, I have a question, Jay and Alex are purposefully gender neutral because I don't know if they'd a certain gender or not. Should one/both/none be a certain gender or should they be non-binary/genderfluid? They aren't likely to be actually seen in the fic, but still, it's good to ask in case we ever do see them!


	8. Stuffed Spiders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, huh? Have some fluff

Virgil had a plan. It was probably very stupid, and he wasn’t sure if this would really help or make Patton hate him, but as the days grew closer to the best holiday in the world, Virgil wanted to go all out on the scare factor, and he didn’t want some dumb little thing like fear of spiders to hinder both his and Patton’s enjoyment of the greatest thing this side of the world has to offer.

After school, a week after the sleepover, Virgil kept an eye on his roommate as they headed to the cafeteria to grab something premade for supper rather than wait for their time in the kitchen. They both grabbed some slices of school-brand pizzas - they weren’t as bad as public school pizzas, but they weren’t as good as actual pizza - and bottled juices, before heading back to the dorms. Patton had a decent setup going for him, a tidy schedule provided thanks to Logan’s weird need to have things scheduled and listed like the ultimate nerd he was. If there was a lot of homework due the next day, or difficult homework like math or science, cutting out the time to make supper and eat in the dining area of the main floor left more time to finish before curfew.

They walked up the stairs to their room. Virgil had suggested they eat and work in there rather than in the main area, _ ‘to avoid all the distractions from the others’ _ he had supplied in form of an answer when Patton questioned it. The two of them were careful whenever they did bring food into their dorm, more often than not eating and working on the floor or their desks than on their beds to not get crumbs everywhere.

Patton entered their room first, Virgil hurrying in after him and pushing the door closed, quickly putting his things off to the side on the nearest flat surface - Patton’s desk was next to the door. He had to hurry because he had left his Halloween stuff clearly in view on his bed, with his fake spiders on top.

It was barely three seconds of the door being shut when Patton _ screeched _ like a murderer broke into the room. Virgil quickly planted his feet and spread his arms wide against the door and frame as his roommate slammed into him in an attempt to escape the inanimate decorations. He barely heard the sounds of Patton’s things being flung from his hands before he collided with him, and the back of his mind idly hoped the pizza hadn’t touched the ground. He didn’t want to share his second slice.

He heard scrabbling against the door and pushed off it, full-body picking Patton up and away from his escape point as the puppy nerd screeched and hollered - if Virgil wasn’t about to go deaf from the proximity, he’d think Patton was shouting the word ‘spiders!’ over and over again with every new intake of breath - his head off.

“Patton. Patton!” Virgil shook his friend before wrestling him to the floor. He _ really _ hadn’t thought this through. “Patton! They’re fake! Stop screaming bloody murder before someone comes in thinking you’re dying!”

“But, spi-dmp!” Patton was still screaming, so Virgil clapped a hand over his mouth. He looked genuinely scared and a part of Virgil felt bad for doing this to him. The rest of him ignored it, focusing on making him get over it before Halloween ended.

“Yes, yes, I know, spiders. Stop. Yelling.” Virgil panted. It was quieter, with Patton muffled, and he at least stopped trying to escape their room. “Jesus, Pat, you’re gunna make me go deaf like that.”

Patton gave a muffled response, his tone possibly apologetic, but Virgil wasn’t about to risk letting him scream again so he kept a hand over his mouth and not-entirely-lightly sat on top of him, straddling his stomach.

“Just, give me a minute to explain. No screaming, no loud noises at all, no running. Okay?”

Patton nodded quickly, his glasses almost bouncing off his nose, his face red from the entire thing. With a sigh, Virgil removed his hand from his mouth and sat back, not getting off him.

“Okay.” Virgil started, crossing his arms as he looked down at his roommate. “It’s Halloween. My favourite holiday.”

Patton nodded slowly. At least he stopped trying to tell him that Halloween was only a day, not the entire month of October like he had for the first few days of the holiday month, but eventually learned Virgil wasn’t to be stopped on his favourite holiday preparations.

“One of the things about the month of Halloween is the spookiness. Scary movies, cobwebs, skeletons, zombies, vampires, shit like that. _ And,” _ he stressed the word, leaning forward a bit to tower more over Pat, “that includes spiders. They are the least scary thing on the list too. I warned you, first day of school, that I’d make you get used to them.” He gestured to his bed where the mound of his Halloween stuff he brought from home - his mom had more than enough decorations for their home - for emphasis. “And that starts today.”

Patton whined like a kicked puppy, squirming under him. “Whyyyyy?”

“I’m willing to compromise a bit.” Virgil mostly ignored him. “You can decide where to put the spider decorations, but they have to be easily seen and cannot be moved by either of us once they have been placed. You don’t have to touch them, but you have to be okay looking at them. Okay?”

He had taken this long to enact his plan because he knew he had to have compromises that sounded fair. He even texted his mom about this! She seemed to agree that he couldn’t be selfish about it. He wasn’t trying to be an asshole, like he had been for most of middle school.

Patton squirmed under him again, pushing Virgil so he could sit up. “Fine. But what happens if one of them moves? I will find a way to burn our room if that happens.”

The threat - _ did Pat really just make a threat? What? _\- threw Virgil for a loop for a moment. “Please don’t commit arson, it’s not as fun as you think.” He quickly countered, not thinking about what he was saying. “I promise I will not move a single fake spider. Look, they’re like huge compared to any spiders we could actually have. They’re not gunna move unless they fall or something stupid like that.” He shook his head. “Listen, would it sweeten the deal if I promise some cutesy plushies of spiders to help? Those stupid ones with the cartoonishly large eyes and smiley face? Surely you’re not afraid of those things?”

Patton looked very tempted, so Virgil thought he hit the right choice. “Maybe.” The answer got Virgil to grin. “We can go look at those over a weekend?”

“Good! Now get up, I’m gunna move this stuff onto my desk. I want to eat before the sun sets, thanks. Where did you fling your food off to?”

Patton only lost one of his slices to the floor, but things calmed between the two of them. Virgil had a feeling the puppy nerd was decidedly not looking at the Halloween decorations on his desk, but he didn’t say anything else on the matter. The two began working on their homework, Virgil slipping his headphones over his ears to focus better with some music - he could not understand how Pat could work in silence, it would drive him mad if he had nothing to drown out the silence.

* * *

The weekend was upon them, and the pile had remained on Virgil’s desk. Patton said he wanted that plushie before he’ll help set up their room for Halloween. They had both decided to also stay at school for the weekend since they lived so far from each other.

It was the weirdest thing to return to their dorm on Friday, with only about a quarter of the guys their year also staying. A bit weirder to wake up in his dorm room on Saturday without needing to go to classes.

The two decided to head out late morning, catching a bus that would take them to the mall. Virgil hadn’t been to it very often, the one closer to his place was his and the others’ usual haunt back in middle school when they weren’t in the Lair, but he knew the layout decently well. He had been to it maybe only a handful of times, and Patton had said he had gone to this mall most of the time whenever he went out with friends or family.

They entered the mall, and it was packed despite the relatively early time. Families walked by, the tiny children running around or holding hands with a parent, or sitting in various sized strollers, awake or asleep. Teens their age or older were scattered throughout, hanging out with friends. Virgil paid very little attention to the other people in the mall, slouching forward almost as soon as they entered the main building, sticking closer to Patton than a moment before.

“You’re not nervous about the crowd, are you?” Pat asked as they walked through the mall, searching for the toy stores, but he had an eye on Virgil and nudged him with his shoulder.

“No. Just don’t like them.” Virgil replied, stuffing a hand in his pullover giant pocket. He glanced around before spotting one of the toy stores and nodded to it. “Let’s try that place first.”

“Okay.” Pat took his hand and pulled him along, and even after Virgil was walking side-by-side, neither really seemed inclined to let go. It was a warm, grounding thing for Virgil, and he found himself relaxing his shoulders.

The store they went to was filled with toys, mainly board games or puzzles. Patton gushed over every single thing, asking if Virgil had ever played this-or-that, to look at the cute design of a puzzle, or to check out the off-brand lego sets, before they finally left the first store. It had taken a bit of persuasion to make Patton not buy the first things his eyes landed on, Virgil constantly telling him he’ll end the trip before they could get the stuffed spider and they would be working on setting up their room without that compromise until after.

It took a few stores to find anything remotely what they were looking for. A small plushie store on the other side of the mall that held all kind of manner of stuffed toys. Virgil was the one to find the big-eyed cutesy spiders in a spinning rack.

“Hey, Pat, here.” He waved his friend over, spinning the rack to show off the different kinds of spiders, and other smaller creatures of the same make. “Pick whichever one you like. Then we can get something to eat, I’m starving.”

“Okay, okay.” Patton looked hesitant, but inspected the stuffies, pulling out one before putting it back. Virgil watched him for a moment, then turned to look around the store and the entrance.

The store was empty except for a mother-and-child duo and the employee at the cashier. The child was running around the store, petting and pulling out various toys to hug or play with, their little voice high with excitement as they called out all the creatures they could name. A part of Virgil felt annoyance at the kid’s squeaky voice, but that was still the part of him he was trying to kill off, because it reminded him too much of how much of an asshole he had been in middle school. He saw how Patton would look over at the kid with a soft expression, and a weird sensation warmed his chest. It was like Patton was a bright spot, too bright to look at directly, and Virgil had to look away.

The kid ran up to them, pointing at the stuffy Patton had just put away. “Spidey, Mommy!” They called over their shoulder, as their mother walked over to them as well with a sheepish smile.

“Good job, sweetheart.” She ruffled her kid’s hair, who beamed at her before grabbing another spider from the rack, wiggling it to make all the floppy legs wave back and forth. “Sorry, she recently got a creature book and hasn’t stopped telling anyone who could hear her about which things she’s seen.”

“Oh that’s alright.” Patton waved the apology away with a bright smile, looking down at the kid, holding up a bat. “Hey, do you know what this is?”

“Batman!” The kid’s proud voice got her mother and Patton to laugh, Virgil huffing in amusement.

“Clos-” Patton started, but he interupted.

“Yep, good job, squirt.” The girl lifted her hands up to take the bat toy, and Patton gladly traded her for the spider she had taken. She and her mom walked away after that, the kid chattering happily.

The spider plush was a dark, dark purple almost black spider with bright blue eyes, the stitched smile hidden by the body’s colour. Even Virgil had to admit, it was adorable.

“I think this one is the best one.” Patton announced, holding it up.

Virgil looked at the price tag and nodded. “Okay. Come on, then. Should I pay for it, since I was the one who thought this up?”

Patton shook his head. “No, no, I’ll pay for it myself.”

“Then I’ll pay for lunch.” Virgil said, cutting Patton off when he looked about to protest. “It’s only fair, Pat. Not like I really make huge purchases or anything with my allowance.”

“Okay, fine, fine. But I want to choose what we’re getting.”

“Deal.”

Chapter Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Patton and I spent most of this chapter denying the fact that this was a maybe-date. Virgil is still very intent on getting his full Halloween experience and oblivious to any gay panic Patton may have been showing.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has been in my head for a while since I really got into the fandom. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it, aha ^^;;  
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